New Life Sunday – Muddy shoes…

Have you ever had an experience that flashed you way back to your childhood?

Today, I was over at our new church location and noticed a fresh trench that was dug into the floor. I could see the soil and smell the damp odor of freshly moved dirt.

That dirt along with the earth moving machines below my office window were enough to bring me back to an experience as a kid.

The entire street outside our house in St. Cloud, MN had been dug up to replace sewer lines. The holes were several feet deep and ran for nearly the length of the block. The opportunity to explore proved to be magnetic for myself and two older siblings.

The problem was that our parents made a rule that we could not play in the construction zone. As a kid, I thought that rule was dumb…as a parent it makes a lot of sense.

Funny how things change…

One day, the Campbell kids decided to re-interpret the rule. We walked to the end of our block, out of sight and then decided to explore the construction zone.

We weren’t playing in the hole, we were just walking down into it…at least that’s what we told ourselves.

I can still remember walking on the tracks of the earth-movers and smelling the freshly turned dirt while we “explored” the construction zone.

It was a lot of fun until we arrived home. We didn’t take into account the possibility of the mud getting on our shoes and clothes. Talk about dumb criminals…

I remember mom lining the three of us for a good spanking.

Each one of us was guilty of breaking the family rule and going into the construction zone. I would guess that my sister spent the least amount of time in the mud while my brother and I spent more time in it.

The point is that it didn’t matter if we had a little mud on us or a lot…if we had mud on us we were guilty.

The Apostle Paul is teaching a similar concept in Romans 3. This week we will study from verses 9-12 and the conclusion is that every person is guilty. The Jews argued that they were better than (had less mud on them) the Gentiles and Paul addresses this by saying, “both Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written: there is none righteous, no, not one.”

Each person who has ever lived is equally guilty before God…but the story doesn’t end there. I hope you can attend the service at New Life CityChurch on Sunday at 10:45am to find out more. 🙂